Investors fixated on the Greek crisis in recent years have missed another crisis brewing in China, which is a thousand times worse than Greece’s.

China is the world’s second largest economy, still growing by 7% (officially) and with plenty of foreign currency reserves. Greece is a tiny economy floundering in the swamp of its worst depression since the 1930s, barely holding on in the Eurozone.

In the last four decades, they share a semi-Soviet economic model whereby a large part of the economy has been under the direct or indirect control of central and local government, constraining economic freedoms (see table).

In both countries government has been active in “strategic sectors,” telecom, utilities, transportation, and energy — as regulator, owner, financier, entrepreneur, and manager.

The active government involvement in these sectors has helped keep inefficient enterprises afloat, though more in China, where the government is the outright owner of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Town Village Enterprises (TVEs) — producing goods as varied as steel, laundry powder, aluminum and toilet paper.

Investors fixated on the Greek crisis in recent years have missed another crisis brewing in China, which is a thousand times worse than Greece’s.

China is the world’s second largest economy, still growing by 7% (officially) and with plenty of foreign currency reserves. Greece is a tiny economy floundering in the swamp of its worst depression since the 1930s, barely holding on in the Eurozone.

In the last four decades, they share a semi-Soviet economic model whereby a large part of the economy has been under the direct or indirect control of central and local government, constraining economic freedoms (see table).

In both countries government has been active in “strategic sectors,” telecom, utilities, transportation, and energy — as regulator, owner, financier, entrepreneur, and manager.

The active government involvement in these sectors has helped keep inefficient enterprises afloat, though more in China, where the government is the outright owner of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Town Village Enterprises (TVEs) — producing goods as varied as steel, laundry powder, aluminum and toilet paper.

Simply put, one arm of the government lends funds to another arm of the government, and everyone is happy, until someone must pay the bill. Then the situation turns ugly.

That’s what happened in Greece in 2011, when the country’s semi-Soviet model collapsed, taking down a large and corrupt government that lacked the resources to finance its multiple roles in the economy. That’s how Greek pensioners ended up in long lines outside ATM machines.

Things are even worse in China when it comes to the potential of a systemic risk crisis.

Government-owned banks lend money directly to government owned corporations, which usually function as welfare agencies; and to land developers, who are behind the country’s “investment” bubble, one of the engines of the Chinese economy.

Now, think about the size of the Greek economy vis-à-vis the size of the Chinese economy. You can see why China’s financial crisis could be a Greek-style crisis on a grand scale, unsettling world financial markets, as the country’s regime will try to export that crisis through currency devaluations.

Investors around the world just got a taste of what that means for currencies, commodities, and equities.

The state privatization fund Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) of Greece has accepted a “significantly improved” offer from China’s Cosco Group for the state’s majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP).

“HRADF’s board of directors accepted the improved offer made by COSCO Group (Hong Kong) Ltd in the context of the tender for the sale of the 67 percent of Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) shares,” an HRADF statement said.

The Chinese group submitted on Wednesday an improved binding offer of 22 euros (US$24) per share which amounts to 368.5 million euros (US$401m) for the controlling 67 percent stake in PPA, according to HRADF’s announcement.

Cosco is now offering 22 euros per share, HRADF said, which translates into a premium of 69.8 percent based on Wednesday’s closing price of 12.95 euros a share, according to Reuters calculations.

The improved offer of €22 (US$24) per share is part of a €1.5bn (US$1.6bn) agreement, which includes the implementation of mandatory investments worth a total of €350bn over the next decade and the expected revenues from the Concession Agreement for the HRADF which amount to €410m (US$447m).

Besides acquiring 67 percent of Piraeus Port, the country’s largest port, Cosco has also committed to investing 350 million euros in the next five years.

“A major development and a very important milestone of the privatization program, in line with the commitments of the Greek Republic has been achieved successfully,” a statement from the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund said.

COSCO will operate a container terminal, which handled 600,000 teu in 2014, as well as a cruise terminal and car terminals.

The acquisition is expected to be agreed by OLP's shareholders next month before seeking approval from Greece's Court of Audit and parliament. The deal will be fully rubber stamped by May, Xinhua News Agency reports.

The Chinese state-owned port operator was the sole bidder as its competitors APM Terminals (APMT) and International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) did not submit offers by the bidding deadline.

They don't generally restrict 'social' problems to Hindus and generally rant against almost everyone who don't follow one true religion as revealed to BBC. BBC documentaries are great for studying all kinds of propaganda done with sophistication be it social, political, historical, religious, environmental, artistic and everything else. But only if one knows how it works, otherwise the gullible might get converted.